Reasons South Korean Culture has become a global phenomenon

Beyond the popular "Squid Game" series on Netflix, South Korea has recently had a number of other notable cultural exports.

New albums from K-pop acts like BTS or Blackpink are at the top of the charts across the globe, and the passionate fandom culture that originated in South Korea is now a global phenomenon.

When Bong Joon-movie ho's "Parasite" won four Oscars in 2020, including best picture, it created a sensation in 2019.

Han Kang, who received the Man Booker Prize in 2016 for her book "The Vegetarian," and Kim Young-ha, who received the Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Fiction Prize) in 2020 for her book "Diary of a Murderer," both of which are examples of South Korean literature that has gained recognition abroad.

However, South Korean pop culture has taken a while to achieve its current level of success. In the middle of the 1990s, the Chinese word "Hallyu," which literally translates as "Korean Wave," was developed to characterise the popularity and dissemination of modern South Korean culture.

The wave first spread to other Asian countries

According to Michael Fuhr, managing director of the Center for World Music and research assistant at the Institute for Music and Musicology at the University of Hildesheim, "Hallyu quickly conquered the Chinese market, but the industry always had their eyes on the US market, where it however faced many failures."

According to Fuhr, who is pursuing a doctorate in K-pop and recently collaborated to a study on fan culture in K-pop with academics from Liverpool and Seoul, South Korea set itself apart from other markets early on through its idol training system. If you think you know too much about korean industry then take the quizzes available on https://koreanquiz.com.

A grueling training system

The three largest entertainment organisations in Korea, YG, SM, and JYP, are known for choosing hundreds of young trainees who are put through rigorous training regimens where they can spend up to 14 hours a day honing their performance abilities.

The boy band Great Bang, which was put together by YG in 2006, started garnering notoriety outside of South Korea and Japan around the end of the 2000s, while the group Girls' Generation, which was established by SM Entertainment, was a big hit there as well.

A milestone with Psy

However, the worldwide success of rapper Psy's song "Gangnam Style" in 2012 marked South Korean music's significant Western breakthrough. Within a few months, its YouTube video had received more than a billion clicks, totaling more than 4.2 billion views as of today.

Michael Fuhr notes that although Psy wasn't a traditional K-pop representative, he did show that language was no longer a barrier to success abroad.

The power of social networks

YouTube and other quickly expanding social media and streaming platforms undoubtedly played a role in the phenomena. Record businesses were suddenly no longer dependent on broadcasters airing their music or videos; instead, fans could choose what they like on their own.

According to Michael Fuhr, "K-pop fans are well connected, the fan culture is tremendously engaged, and the industry knows how to serve it.

To ensure that as many young people as possible may relate to them, the organisations responsible for creating K-pop groups purposefully choose band members with a variety of personality qualities.